Reach Your Peak!

The simple truth is that a will strong enough to keep a man continually striving for things not wholly beyond his powers will carry him in time very far toward his chosen goal. Set a reasonable goal.  Create your plan to reach this new goal.

Many experts suggest you establish a series of mini-goals or stepping stones. Use these stepping stones to keep moving towards and reach your ultimate goal!

A vacillating man, no matter what his abilities, is invariably pushed to the wall in the race of life by a determined will. It is he who resolves to succeed, and who at every fresh rebuff begins resolutely again, that reaches the goal. The shores of fortune are covered with the stranded wrecks of men of brilliant ability, but who have wanted courage, faith and decision, and have therefore perished in sight of more resolute but less capable adventurers, who succeeded in making port.

   How many good, well intentioned men have failed their quest because they lacked the courage to make a first effort? Had they only have resolved to begin, would have astonished the world by their achievements and successes.

The fact is, as Sydney Smith has well said, that in order to do anything in this world that is worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank, thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. No one ever reached the peak without first getting started. Without taking those first steps toward their goal!

"Circumstances," says Milton, "have rarely favored famous men. They have fought their way to triumph over  all sorts of obstacles." What can you do with a man who has an invincible purpose in him; who never knows when he is beaten?  Difficulties and opposition do not daunt him. He thrives upon persecution; it only stimulates him to try harder and press on with more determined effort.

You can achieve amazing success. Enjoy your journey. Keep moving - with a constant focus on what you want. Concentrate your efforts on the goals you set for yourself. And - as the great statesman, Churchill once said - "Never, ever give up". You can reach your peak! You can win and enjoy your road to success!

Reach Your Goals

Countless books on goals and success appear to have a few common threads.

    Many suggest  four basic principles stated in many different ways:

1) Decide precisely what you are want to achieve and accept no substitute. Visualize yourself reaching your target.

 2) Choose to take action define the steps needed to reach your goal. Then take massive action. Keep your eyes on your goal and act vigorously and relentlessly to make your goal a reality;

3) Take time to recognize progress and lack of progress so you can repeat, add to, or alter your action steps accordingly;

4) Realize that you may ( in fact most will ) make mistakes along the way. Don't despair - instead abandon preconceived notions of what should or will ultimately work. Be willing to change your plans and actions as needed.

Here’s one healthy habit for reaching your goals you can start tonight -

Set aside 30 minutes each night to review your plan for the following day.

     Once your day begins, take a few minutes if you can to review your plan for the day and decide which actions will deliver the most results.  Many find it difficult to take time for planning their day on the run. It is much easier to develop an action plan - realizing that plans can be altered in mid-stream. Be flexible. Keep your momentum. Some famous motivational speaker used to say "Plan your work and work your plan".

    You have the ability to store a thousand ideas and details associated with your day. However, you can work on only one thing at a time. Planning your day the night before acts as a sorting-out process and calms the nervous system, which has been in hyper mode all day. Think of it like cleaning up your pots and pans after you make that delicious meal. If you don't do it now - they will be all that much harder to clean when you need them tomorrow! 

    The  benefit is the feeling of being more in control and less overwhelmed by the nearly inevitable onslaught of daily interruptions. Having some handle on what you want to accomplish tomorrow might even help you sleep a little better!

Getting Things Done - Reach Your Goals

"Just Do It" the old Nike ad urged us all. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. 


"How," asked a man of Sir Walter Raleigh, "do you accomplish so much and in so short a time?" "When I have anything do, I go and do it," was the reply. The man who always acts promptly, even if he makes occasional mistakes, will succeed  when a procrastinator will fail even if he have the better judgment.

When asked how he managed to get so much done, Lord Chesterfield replied: "Because I never put off till morrow what I can do to-day."

Dewitt, pensionary of Holland, answered the same question: "Nothing is more easy; never do but one thing at a time, and never put off until to-morrow what can be done to-day."

Walter Scott was a very punctual man. This was the secret of his enormous achievements. He made it a rule to answer all letters the day they were received. He rose at five. By breakfast time he had broken the neck of the day's work, as he used to say. Writing to a youth who had obtained a situation and asked him for advice, he gave this counsel: "Beware of stumbling over a propensity which easily besets you from not having your time fully employed—I mean what the women call dawdling. Do instantly whatever is to be done, and take the hours of recreation after business, never before it."

The world knows that the prompt man's bills and notes will be paid on the day they are due, and will trust him. People will give him credit, for they know they can depend upon him. But lack of promptness will shake confidence almost as quickly as downright dishonesty. The man who has a habit of dawdling or procrastination will reveal it in everything he does. He is late at meals, late at work, dawdles on the street, loses his train, misses his appointments, and dawdles at his store until the banks are  closed. Everybody he meets suffers from his procrastination, for dawdling becomes practically a disease.

"You will never find time for anything," said Charles Buxton; "if you want time you must make it."

The best work we ever do is that which we do now, and can never repeat. "Too late," is the curse of the unsuccessful, who forget that "one today is worth two tomorrows."

Time accepts no sacrifice; it admits of neither redemption nor atonement. It is the true avenger. Your enemy may become your friend, your injurer may do you justice, but time is inexorable, and has no mercy.

If you want to reach your goals, Act Now. Just get started and get some momentum going!

Set a Goal

Do you want more energy? Would you like to look a little healthier? Lose a few pounds? Tone up your body?
Whatever you desire - in terms of better health - can happen if you make a plan and start taking action! Any action.

Look at where you are right now and decide what you want to change. 

Start with a plan to create better habits. Write your goal - and your plan on paper. Some people have found keeping a journal helpful. Whatever form you decide on - write down your goals and the plan to achieve them. Decide and write down the specific steps you need to take. 

Then start taking action - immediately!

Aim high - shoot for the moon. If you miss, at least you'll be better off than you were before you started. Who cares about being perfect? Write down the change you want to make, profess it to a willing partner in crime, and see what happens.

Make small, manageable changes in your daily diet and exercise habits. Realistic changes that you can do now. Don’t commit to an unrealistic exercise plan; just do what you truly know you can do, like walking 20 minutes every day at lunch, or even three days a week. Include more vegetables and fruits in your daily diet. Cut back on refined sugars, soda and junk food. Small changes practiced daily will lead to big results!

If you slip and miss a day or cheat a little, don't give up. Simply decide to do better tomorrow or the next day. At the end of a week, or a month, measure your progress. 

Rethink your plan. 

What's working?

And what isn't?

Change your action plan accordingly. Then set out on taking even more action! You will gradually see improvement if you stick to your plan!

We can achieve great success in our quest for just about anything if we just keep chipping away at our goals.

Reach the Goal

What has chance ever done in the world? Has it built any cities? Has it invented any telephones, any telegraphs? Has it built any steamships, established any universities, any asylums, any hospitals? Was there any chance in Cæsar's crossing the Rubicon? What had chance to do with Napoleon's career, with Wellington's, or Grant's, or Von Moltke's? Every battle was won before it was begun. What had luck to do with Thermopylæ, Trafalgar, Gettysburg? Our successes we ascribe to ourselves; our failures to destiny.

A vacillating man, no matter what his abilities, is invariably pushed to the wall in the race of life by a determined will. It is he who resolves to succeed, and who at every fresh rebuff begins resolutely again, that reaches the goal. The shores of fortune are covered with the stranded wrecks of men of brilliant ability, but who have wanted courage, faith and decision, and have therefore perished in sight of more resolute but less capable adventurers, who succeeded in making port. Hundreds of men go to their graves in obscurity, who have been obscure only because they lacked the pluck to make a first effort, and who, could they only have resolved to begin, would have astonished the world by their achievements and successes. The fact is, as Sydney Smith has well said, that in order to do anything in this world that is worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank, and thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.

There is about as much chance of idleness and incapacity winning real success, or a high position in life, as there would be in producing a Paradise Lost by shaking up promiscuously the separate words of Webster's Dictionary, and letting them fall at random on the floor. Fortune smiles upon those who roll up their sleeves and put their shoulders to the wheel; upon men who are not afraid of dreary, dry, irksome drudgery, men of nerve and grit who do not turn aside for dirt and detail.

The simple truth is that a will strong enough to keep a man continually striving for things not wholly beyond his powers will carry him in time very far toward his chosen goal.